Configuring Poweramp for Specific Playback Behavior

[zwobot]

Hello everyone,

I'm seeking advice on configuring Poweramp in a very specific way and was wondering if anyone here could guide me.

I'd like Poweramp to remember the position of a song when it's paused or stopped - so it can resume from the same spot when played again. However, when manually switching to the next or previous track, I want the new track to start from the beginning, regardless of whether it was played before and paused midway.

I've looked through the settings but haven't found a way to achieve this. Does anyone know if it's possible to set up Poweramp this way, or is there a workaround that could accomplish this?

Any suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Edited April 2 by zwobot
text editing

[andrewilley]

Poweramp actually keeps underlying log data of the last playback position of every file it has played.

If you wish to resume at that position again whenever you next play the same song, go into Settings=>Library and enable 'Store/Restore Per Track Progress'. There is a threshold slider which controls how long a track needs to be for this resume function to work; normally this would be fairly long so it only resumes for tracks like podcasts, full-length concerts, audiobooks, etc, but if you set it to zero then every song will be resumed rather than starting from the beginning. This is a Global setting, which will always occur when a song is started - including by clicking on a new song, auto-advancing, or using the Next/Prev buttons.

There is also a separate option for individual Folders and Playlists only, which you can get to via (menu)=>List Options from each Playlist or Folder view. Enable 'Per Track Progress' to resume playing at the saved playback position. You can also enable 'List Position' which means that when you use the 'Play' icon in the header of that folder or playlist, playback will resume with the last song you listened to - handy for continuing where you left off in a playlist containing a lot of songs, or large folder. These two settings are local to just the specific folders or playlists in which you enable the feature, so if you play from the Album Category for example then only the earlier (Global) Library setting will take effect.

You can't set either of these features of only trigger when you manually start a new song from scratch though, they will happen any time a new song begins playing.

Andre

[zwobot]

Thank you for your help.

 

To clarify, my main issue revolves around listening to long DJ sets, often 2+ hours each. If I switch from one set after reaching, say, 1 hour and 30 minutes, because I need a change, the next set doesn't start from the beginning but resumes from where I previously left off, which could be days ago. I want it to start from the beginning whenever I manually change tracks. However, if I pause a set and turn off my car, say at the 30-minute mark to refuel my car, and then resume, I’d like it to continue from that 30-minute mark. Is there a specific setting to achieve this blend of manual and automatic behavior?

[andrewilley]

The position within the current song in the Player Screen (e.g. listening 30 minutes into a one-hour track) should always be retained when you pause Poweramp and then restart it again later. That position should even survive a device reboot, but that does depend on your device's ability to correctly save its state during a shutdown. Sometimes you may find that Android car headunits (some of the no-brand Chinese versions in particular) can simply cut off power with the ignition without giving running apps the chance to shutdown gracefully and save their status. Is your Poweramp installation on an Android-based car headunit, or on a regular phone that is connected to the car via Bluetooth?

The 'Restore Per-Track Progress' options are only for when you have gone on to play other music before returning to your long session. If you don't want to remember the last-played position when coming back to a song again later, turn those features off.

Andre

[zwobot]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I understand how the 'Restore Per-Track Progress' feature works and how Poweramp manages saved positions for tracks. My primary need is for each new track to start from the beginning when I manually change them, especially considering I listen to long DJ sets. However, I'd like the position to be saved if I pause a track and return to it later. Is there a recommendation on achieving this behavior, or is it beyond the app's current capabilities? I use an Android auto headunit.

[andrewilley]

As I said earlier, that is Poweramp's normal default mode. With 'Restore Per-Track Progress' turned OFF, older saved playback positions will not be restored when you play a track again.

However the current song position (i.e. the song shown in the Player Screen) should always be remembered between sessions,and if you try that on a regular phone or tablet you will see that is the case.

The problem here is most likely with your headunit not sending a standard Shutdown Intent, or not allowing the app enough time to cleanly save its status, when you turn the ignition off. You could try pressing Pause manually, and exiting the app, before you cut the power, that might allow the state to be saved.

Max's reply in this thread provides a bit more background, but the playing song's position is only saved when PA is sent a shutdown command from Android; if the power gets cut before that occurs, then the position obviously cannot be saved:

Andre

[zwobot]

Ok Andre, thank you for your time and the detailed explanation!